1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device for fluorescence observation whereby a fluorescent image is obtained.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, endoscope devices have come to be widely used in the field of medical treatment and the industrial field. In particular, in the field of medical treatment, endoscope devices are available whereby, in addition to obtaining a normal image using normal white light, an image is obtained whereby normal tissue and diseased tissue can easily be identified.
As an image processing device for fluorescence observation employed in such an endoscope device, as disclosed for example in Laid-open Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-137174, an image processing device for fluorescence observation has been proposed whereby an image signal is generated in which, in essence, the relative intensity of fluorescence is converted to color and the intensity of reference light is converted to luminance.
As disclosed for example in Laid-open Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-270265, an image processing device for fluorescence observation has also been proposed in which a synthesized image is constructed, wherein a fluorescent image and a background image are superimposed by allocating a single channel to the image signal of a fluorescent image and another channel to the image signal of a reflected light image, in an image signal used to form an image for fluorescence observation.